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Seniors speak up - and are heard

Staten Island Advance/JanSecurity manager Curtis Cabell, a resident of Sea View, provided his phone number and promised to drive to Cassidy should management issues arise.In a letter to the editor published in the Advance last week, Coughlin made a dire prediction: With staff cuts at Cassidy Houses it is only a matter of time before a senior citizen will be “gunned down by gang members,” he wrote. “Non-residents roam the halls looking to mug a frail elderly person in her own home, or party in our stairwells. We lie awake at night listening to revelers screaming obscenities from our roof, smashing beer bottles, fighting and menacing others.”

“You made Cassidy look very bad in the Advance,” Ethel Nelson, a resident of 135 Cassidy, said to Coughlin at the meeting. “Yes, we have issues, but we don’t have push-ins or people on the roof.”

“If I divide this room I feel that half of you think Cassidy is a problem,” said Lieutenant Steve Nichols of the North Shore’s 120th Police Precinct. Nichols said Cassidy has been troubled by nuisance problems, but not major crimes.

During random walk-throughs, NYCHA’s borough director for Staten Island Carolyn Jasper said she has never seen beer bottles, evidence of trespassers sleeping in the hallways, or any major problems.

“I don’t think it’s getting worse,” she told the Advance after the forum.

But nodding and applause among the residents signaled widespread agreement that rodents and other pests have plagued the complex, that elevators are sporadic and leaky when it rains, and that some residents make others feel unsafe.

“We need rules and regulations and people to enforce them,” said Ruth Stewart, 82, who complained of urine in the elevators.

Resident John Murphy said he’d seen security guards drinking and sleeping on the job, and that they were needed between the hours of 6 and 10 p.m.

Coughlin said he slipped in an elevator puddle in 125 Cassidy during the March wind storm.

“You are now living in conditions that nobody should have to live in,” said Ms. Rose, who was optimistic after the meeting that problems would be addressed. NYCHA leaders wrote down residents’ complaints and asked residents to report problems as they arise. Security manager Curtis Cabell, a resident of Sea View, provided his phone number and promised to drive to Cassidy should management issues arise, and Lt. Nichols pledged that summonses will be issued to violators at Cassidy in coming weeks.